Glossary
The language of protective intelligence.
Plain-language definitions of the terms used in executive protection and protective intelligence — what each one means, and where it shows up in a Ravus engagement.
A–Z
- Advance work
- Assessing and preparing locations, routes, venues and events before the principal arrives — who will be present, what looks normal, where the exposure sits, and what the contingency is.Related: Protective Intelligence →
- Areas to avoid
- The parts of a destination a traveler is advised to stay out of, ranked and mapped in a Ravus travel risk brief so the itinerary and the ground routes can be planned around them.Related: Travel Risk Brief →
- BLUF (bottom line up front)
- The opening of a brief: the overall rating, a short statement of the situation, the recommended posture and the actions that matter most — readable by a detail lead in under a minute.Related: Protective Intelligence Brief →
- Confidence level
- A High, Medium or Low marker on each finding in a brief showing how well it is supported by the sources cited. A low-confidence finding is a lead, not a conclusion.Related: Protective Intelligence Brief →
- Covert / low-profile protection
- Protection with no visible footprint — coverage a casual observer would never identify as security, used when a principal's circumstances call for discretion over deterrence.Related: Covert / Low-Profile Protection →
- Detail / detail leader
- The detail is the protective team assigned to a principal. The detail leader owns the plan, the contingencies and the daily briefing — one point of accountability across shifts.Related: Executive Protection →
- Duty of care
- The obligation of an employer or family office to take reasonable steps to protect the people it is responsible for. Documented assessments, coverage and decisions are how that obligation is recorded.Related: Corporate & Executive →
- Executive protection (EP) / close protection
- The close, personal protection of a principal and their family across the day: the residence, the route, the meeting and the trip. Ravus runs it intelligence-led, sized to the threat rather than a fixed headcount.Related: Executive Protection →
- Geolocation analysis
- A pattern-of-life assessment that shows the routine a principal's movements reveal — key places, wake times, commutes, fixed appointments — and ranks the predictable routines that create exposure so they can be closed.Related: Geolocation Analysis →
- Help card
- The emergency reference in a travel risk brief for each city on the itinerary, giving the traveler what they need to get help on the ground.Related: Travel Risk Brief →
- High-risk termination
- A separation that carries a credible risk of harm. Security for it assesses the subject beforehand, places protection on-site for the event and monitors through the elevated-risk period that follows.Related: High-Risk Termination & Workplace Violence →
- Indicator (Alert / Caution / Clear)
- A threat or behavioral finding in a brief, marked Alert (calls for protective action now), Caution (warrants attention) or Clear (no concern noted), with its confidence, sources and protective implication.Related: Protective Intelligence Brief →
- Official travel advisory
- A government's published guidance on travel to a country — from the US State Department, the UK FCDO or Global Affairs Canada. A Ravus travel risk brief sets them side by side, never averaged.Related: Travel Risk Brief →
- OnTrial intelligence
- The analytical capability and US data access of OnTrial, LLC, an enterprise intelligence firm, that runs beneath every Ravus engagement at every tier.Related: The Intelligence Difference →
- Pattern of life
- A person's routine movement and behavior — where they live, work and go, and when. Reading it, for a principal or a person of concern, shows where risk concentrates and how to reduce it.Related: Geolocation Analysis →
- Person of concern
- An individual whose behavior, grievance or fixation toward a principal warrants assessment — the subject of a threat assessment or a protective intelligence brief.Related: Protective Intelligence →
- Principal
- The person being protected — an executive, a family member, a high-net-worth individual or anyone whose exposure calls for protection. Also called the protectee.Related: Principals & Families →
- Protective implication
- What a finding means for the protectee. Every indicator in a protective intelligence brief states its protective implication, so a finding leads to a decision rather than just a fact.Related: Protective Intelligence Brief →
- Protective intelligence
- The discipline of identifying, assessing and managing threats before they reach a principal: advance work, threat assessment and ongoing monitoring that inform every protective decision.Related: Protective Intelligence →
- Protective intelligence brief
- A sourced, decision-ready assessment of a person of concern, on demand: indicators with their protective implications, an overall rating, the subject's pattern of life and the protective posture the threat calls for.Related: Protective Intelligence Brief →
- Protective posture
- The level and shape of protection in place — detail, vehicle, residence, movements and liaison — relative to the threat. A brief compares the current posture with the one the threat calls for.Related: Protective Intelligence Brief →
- Protective surveillance
- Low-profile observation that protects a principal without an overt detail, watching for hostile attention around the principal and their routes.Related: Covert / Low-Profile Protection →
- Ravus One / Two / Three
- Ravus's three engagement tiers. One is a full covert detail with dedicated intelligence and a senior lead; Two is principal-assigned protection with intelligence support; Three is protective intelligence and advisory.Related: Services →
- Residential security
- Protection of the home and its surroundings: access, approach routes, surveillance posture, staff and visitor protocols, and the measures that harden a residence without turning it into a fortress.Related: Executive Protection →
- Risk index and bands
- A 0–100 reading of risk on a Ravus travel risk brief, shown with a band — Low, Moderate, Elevated, High or Critical — as a scale for the reader, alongside the official advisories.Related: Travel Risk Brief →
- Secure transport / route planning
- Moving a principal by vehicle on routes planned in advance, with contingency routing, so movement is mapped and de-risked before the first car leaves.Related: Executive Protection →
- Threat assessment
- A structured evaluation of a person of concern, event, residence or travel plan — exposure, behavior, capability and likely vectors — that sets out what actually warrants attention and what to do about it.Related: Threat Assessment →
- Travel risk brief
- An on-demand, itinerary-specific brief: a 0–100 risk index for each city and the trip, official US, UK and Canadian advisories side by side, a help card for each city, and the areas to avoid mapped.Related: Travel Risk Brief →
- Workplace violence prevention
- Reducing the risk of violence at work through threat-reporting pathways, behavioral threat assessment and policy that lets an organization act early. Ravus also protects the high-risk moments around separations.Related: Workplace Violence Prevention & High-Risk Termination Security →
Seen first. Handled quietly.
Every engagement begins with a confidential consultation and a clear-eyed assessment of the threat picture.